Our Operations

Central YMCA Club  (www.ymcaclub.co.uk)
The famous 5,000 member ‘Tottenham Court Road YMCA’ is a vibrant, large and successful centre located in central London. The Club is unique in that it combines state of the art health and fitness facilities, a 25m pool and 120 classes per week studio programme, with a 200 strong Volunteer scheme and broad and innovative community usage. This includes daytime exercise and health referral schemes (obesity, cardiac rehab, HIV/AIDS) and community access initiatives (unemployed, Chinese community, seniors, kids). The Club operates several projects in partnership with both the London Borough of Camden and Camden and Westminster Primary Care Trusts. The holistic approach to well-being ensures that extensive health and fitness provision is complemented by a unique creative arts and adult learning programme. The Club offers a children’s activity programme of some considerable size and also operates outreach activity programmes in local primary schools.

Recent achievements:year-on-year increase in active participation of 19%, extensive improvements of equipment supporting activity; awarded management contract for the Gym at the Department of Culture, Media & Sport; Executive Director appointed chair of Camden Physical Activity Forum and Camden Voluntary Sector Health Forum, and Vice Chair of Camden Public Health Partnership; the national roll-out of YMCA Positive Health, the exercise referral programme for people diagnosed with HIV/AIDS sufferers.

Y Touring Theatre Company (www.ytouring.org.uk)
Y Touring is an award-winning national touring theatre company who perform extensively throughout the UK. The company seeks, through high quality theatre and supporting educational materials, to highlight and make accessible important, often difficult, current issues. Thus, they enable young people to make informed choices about critical concerns. In recent years, topics have ranged from sexual and mental health to teenage binge drinking and the use of animals in experimentation.

Recent achievements: completion of an eight week national tour stretching from Land’s End to John O’Groats of Mind the Gap, which challenges the stigma of mental illness, and reached 12,000 young people; published their most recent script and education resources in partnership with Oberon books, taking their current show Every Breath to the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival; a new performance partnership with the Women’s Sports Foundation, promoting participation in football to young Asian women.

Central YMCA Qualifications (CYQ) (www.cyq.org.uk)
CYQ is the UK’s leading exercise and fitness-specific, government approved, qualifications awarding body. CYQ currently offers over 35 qualification units through more than 400 approved training providers and colleges in Britain and internationally. To date, in excess of 100,000 people have received a Central YMCA Qualification leading to employment within the fitness and health related industries.

Recent achievements: key member of the group working to harmonise European fitness qualifications; approval of new centres in Sweden and Abu Dhabi; appointment to develop and deliver the Fitness Industry Association’s new quality assured Code of Practice for member clubs and centres; appointment to act as the independent assessor for the Flame Awards, the annual awards for excellence within the fitness industry.

London Central YMCA Fitness Industry Training (YMCAfit) (www.ymcafit.org.uk)
YMCAfit is a wholly-owned subsidiary charity and is one of the best known names in exercise education. This independent operation develops and delivers the fitness industry’s most respected training for professionals. Currently, around 40 courses are offered, from entry level gym and studio instructor courses to highly specialist Exercise Referral and Exercise & Mental Health programmes. A newly developed apprenticeship training scheme at NVQ level 2 and level 3 will be launched in Spring 2006.

Recent achievements: delivery of the training element of the national disability access programme the Inclusive Fitness Initiative (IFI); development and delivery of the national Sport England/YMCA Community Activator training programme; the recently announced £1/2 million London Development Agency funding award to develop and deliver a ‘training for employment’ programme for up to 150 Black and Minority Ethnic women.

About the YMCA in England

In England, each individual YMCA is an independent charity, focussing its energies and skills within its own communities and providing many examples of superb work. Y’s work in lots of different ways and each one you visit will probably be very different from any other. With regard to a national structure, autonomous YMCA associations affiliate to what is called the National Council of YMCAs - also known as YMCA England. Currently, there are some 140 independent YMCAs affiliated to the National Council. If viewed as one, ‘the YMCA‘ is usually most readily associated with social housing for young people, youth training programmes, fitness qualifications and exercise facilities.

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